The Squandered ComputerEvaluating the
Business Alignment of Information Technologies

"In the near future somebody will write a book about how executives in
the 1990's spent too much money on information technology because they
were afraid to manage it properly. They put their trust in
technological experts to deliver business value from I.T. investments."

- Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 12/20/96

This is that book.

Despite much talk about the cyber economy, information age, or the
knowledge-based enterprise, as yet there are no generally accepted
economic or financial principles to guide executives in spending money
on computers.

The Squandered Computer offers a new perspective from which to
interpret the economics of computerization. It explains the difference
between promises and facts. It shows how misperceptions and negligence
diminish the worth of perhaps the most potent tool, since the
invention of fire, ever placed in the service of humanity.

"It would be difficult to find an author with better credentials to speak
about the applications of information technology in the workplace:
Strassmann has served as chief information officer at General Foods, Kraft
and Xerox corporations and as a senior Defense Department official. Despite
or, rather, because of this extensive background, he has withering comments
to make about the waste of computer resources in most industries. But the
book has much more, including a chilling discussion of international
information crime, which he believes national police and military forces
cannot adequately counter."